Tag Archive | Parody

If you’ve passed by Gem Spa, the legendary East Village bodega that is home to the city’s Best Egg Cream (#BestEggCream) at any point since September 11th of this year, you may have done a double, or even a triple take. We know that St. Mark’s Place has become increasingly gentrified, but is Gem Spa now a bank, or wait, what is going on here, exactly?

While it has been rumored that a citibank is slated to take over the corner lot which has been home to Gem Spa since 1957, fear not: this an art installation meant to draw attention to, but also satirize, the phenomenon known as “Disappearing New York.” It isn’t very pretty.

Disclaimer text running across the bottom of the sign above reads:

schitibank has kept the historical appeal to this building to absorb their customer base. This schiti location is not affiliated with any other schiti locations. We don’t mean to gentrify, as schitibank is co-opting this space with Gem Spa to bring you an authentic banking, egg cream and vaping experience. Every customer is on surveillance cameras. Smile, you’re on camera.

The Gem Spa Schitibank installation is the work of Tommy Noonan and Doug Cameron of boutique marketing firm DCX Growth Accelerator, who are known for their ‘Artisanal’ publicity stunts (Google them and be very impressed).

Click Image to Enlarge So You Can Read the Fine Print!

God is definitely in the details here. Promotional posters for the ‘bank’s’ various perks and services include artwork by Robert Mapplethorpe as well as the likenesses of The New York Dolls, Patti Smith, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac.

Click Image to Enlarge for Detail

More posters and props can be found inside the bodega!

Schiti ATM!

We clearly do not need another bank in the village (or anywhere in NYC, for that matter) but we do need a cool bodega that’s been around forever, and we need our delicious egg creams! Gem Spa is located at the southwest corner of 2nd Avenue and St. Mark’s Place. Drop in and drop some cash next time you’re in the hood. Better yet, make a special trip to visit, so you can see the schitibank installation before they take it down!

Update, May 8th, 2020: Sadly, Gem Spa has fallen victim to the Coronavirus Outbreak. Read the Press Release After The Jump

Nothing in the Universe has yet made me happier than my now decade-old decision to stop having romantic relationships. Because relationships blow, and, as musician Lisa Prank so concisely states is this triumphant return of the Video Clip of the Week, “Luv is Dumb.”Prank, also know as Robin Edwards, has a lot fun with this video, which goodheartedly parodies the iconic, 1992 Romantic Comedy / Grungesploitation film, Singles. If you’ve never seen it, I enthusiastically encourage you to add it to your Netflix queue immediately. I’ll wait.

Aurally, “Luv is Dumb” recalls the ecstatic power-punk tunes of the Buzzcocks, one of the greatest bands to emerge from British First Wave Punk Rock — and surely there is no higher praise than that. It doesn’t even matter than the song is about the living hell that is dating, because it just makes you want to rock. Visually, “Luv Is Dumb” features appearances by friends of Edwards‘ who are all in bands that I’m not even going to pretend to have heard of, including Tacocat, Chastity Belt, Dogbreth and Happy Diving, so if you enjoy those bands already, you have even more reason to check this shit out!

“Luv Is Dumb” can be found on the album, Adult Teen, which, I can already tell just from the title, must be excellent. Like her on the FaceBook at This Link!Enjoy!

Lisa Prank Fulfills her Dream of Flight in the Video for “Luv is Dumb”

Designer Charamath created this fun parody T-shirt design that mashes up the Shel Siverstein book, Where The Side Walk Ends, with the Netflix hit, Stranger Things. Buy one now (for just $19.95, and browse other Stranger Things designs, at This Link!

How’s this badass design for an awesome mash up of 70s Prog Rock with Star Wars Uber Geekdom? That’s what I thought you’d say. Wear the Dark Side collective on a variety of fashionable styles of T-Shirts, Sweatshirts, and Hoodies by clicking over to This Link!

During Saturday Night Live‘s Season 15, way back in 1989, the late Phil Hartman starred in one of the series more hilarious commercial parodies for a fictional product called Colon Blow, spoofing the new wave of high fiber cereals. In the spot, Phil is a typical man sitting down to have a bowl of cereal when an off-camera announcer asks him, how many bowls of his regular oat bran cereal would he have to eat to get as much fiber as Colon Blow. It turns out to be something like 30 thousand bowls, which then form a towering pyramid, with Phil perched atop of them all. Priceless.

I took this photo of a box of Colon Blow, perfectly emulating the original fake product package, in the candy emporium, It’Sugar, located downtown on Broadway in NYC’s NoHo. Actually filled with Nature’s Best crispy energy granola, a 16 ounce box sells for $15.99!

The second season of Nathan Fielder’s critically-acclaimed Comedy Central show Nathan For You will debut on Tuesday, June 24th, July 1st, 2014. Nathan For You, which is completely hilarious, was renewed by the network last year for a 10-episode season — two more episodes than it was given during its initial season. The show will air Tuesdays at 10:30 PM, following Drunk History, which premieres on the same date. While I’m sure there’s a ton of amazing stuff in these 10 episodes of Nathan For You, the most eagerly-awaited one will document Dumb Starbucks, the fully-functioning Starbucks knockoff Fielder opened in Los Angeles in February of this year. Dumb Starbucks, a stunt by Fielder to test the limits of US parody laws, captured the media’s attention before it was known that he was behind it. The business was quickly shut down for operating without a permit. Dumb Starbucks is the only Nathan For You experiment from the new season that has been revealed so far. I am so excited!

There sure was a lot of new street art to see in Williamsburg this past weekend, such as the McDonald’s-themed cartoon character parodies by a guy who calls himself Mr. OneTeas, dubbed The Wack Donald’s Project. Clever! The image of Snow White, above, was photographed on North 8th Street between Wythe and Bedford Avenues, while the images of Donald Duck and Sponge Bob are right by the stairs at the entrance to the L Train at Bedford and North 7th Street. I understand there is also a “Ronald Madonna” drawing, though I was not fortunate enough to come across that one.